All over the Pinterest realm there are recipes and promises of delicious, no-churn ice cream. A too-good-to-be-true solution to all your ice cream making problems.
The no-churn solution starts with a very simple recipe: make whipped cream, add it to a can of sweetened condensed milk, then freeze it. The beauty lies in this simple base recipe, which supposedly allows you to modify the concoction to your liking. Add extracts, chocolate chips, fruit, sprinkles, butter, cookie dough, whatever. The flavor possibilities are seemingly endless.
But the real selling point is that there’s no need for the typical 20-30 minutes of churning. No need to have an ice cream maker. No need to think ahead and freeze the churning container.
Why? Because. Science.
I decided to take-on the no-churn ice cream challenge and concocted Blueberry Bourbon recipe. Sounds pretty good, right? It only took 20 minutes to stir everything together plus an additional 6 hours of freezing time.
I was amazed. And so I began – down the rabbit hole – thinking up all kinds of magical flavors combos. I went and bought a few cartons of heavy cream and some more cans of sweetened condensed milk then proudly proclaimed to Max how we would be able to have homemade ice cream all the time.
But to my dismay, when I went and took the creamy goodness out of the freezer and tried a small bite I realized the flavor was absolutely disgusting. Ever since that unfortunate discovery day, poor Max has been stuck eating the whole batch by himself. I can’t touch the stuff. It’s sooooo sweet. Way too sweet. Basically the most unnatural tasting ice cream I’ve ever had in my life. And believe me, I’ve eaten ice cream at plenty of fast food restaurants in my lifetime. I know what fake ice cream tastes like.
Pinterest failed me!!!
So in the name of natural flavor, I dusted off my ice cream maker and gave the old-school churning technique a legitimate shot. It’s kind of sad to admit this, but I’ve had my ice cream machine for at least 8 years and have never learned how to properly work the damn thing. I guess that’s why when I was younger my mom always had to yell at me about reading the directions.
But I’m glad I finally gave it a shot. This whole experiment made me realize how much of a shame it was that I never properly tried this machine out sooner. I wasted 8 whole years forgoing homemade ice cream! It honestly wasn’t even that terrible, since it’s one of those self-churning machines. It took less time in the freezer to come together than the no-churn variety. Plus the texture, in my opinion, was much better than the no-churn one I made previously. So, really, all you have to do is remember to freeze the churning container the night before. Then you’re good.
For me, the churn style is now the preferable method. Getting out a ladder and busting out the machine was definitely worth all that excruciating effort 😉
Final conclusion: Churned > no-churn
Oh! And strawberry honey ice cream is pretty swell too.
Thanks dad for the honey!
- 1 lb strawberries, hulled and halved
- 1/3-1/2 cup honey (sweeten to taste)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 cups heavy cream
- Place strawberries in a blender or food processor and pulse a few times until berries are coarsely pureed.
- Add strawberries to a bowl and combine honey, lemon juice and heavy cream. Stir together with spoon until well combined.
- Prepare ice cream machine according to the instruction manual. Pour strawberry mixture into frozen ice cream bowl and churn for 20-30 minutes. Once finished transfer churned ice cream into a freezer-safe, sealable container. Chill in the freezer an additional 2-3 hours before serving.
- The magical ice cream maker
Maple Brandy Old Fashioned
Rhubarb Simple Syrup
Strawberry Rhubarb Spritzer
Leave a Reply